Although it might seem like the typical 1.5-mile track, the Vegas oval presents unique challenges with bumps in Turn 1 that are difficult to avoid and a potentially slick surface in Turns 3 and 4 as the drivers race into the heat of the day.

Typically the cooler temperatures should mean maximum grip. But not at Vegas.

"There are a lot of drivers pulling for it to be warm on Sunday," defending Cup champion and Sunday polesitter Brad Keselowski said.

"As the track heats up and builds temperature, it tends to lay down rubber quicker and the upper lanes will open up and make it easier to pass as the track becomes a multigroove track. That is a big variable."

The multiple grooves help drivers get over the bumps in Turn 1 because they can choose which ones their cars seem to perform better when going over them.

The bumps are nothing unusual. Bumps often develop at tracks over the area where there is a tunnel underneath for vehicle access into the infield.

"This place has got a lot of bumps going into Turn 1," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. "They are something else. I'm impressed each time I come here how much rougher it is.

"That really challenges you to set the car up to be able to get through them bumps and you might run a little different style shock package to do that."

The difficult part for teams is that they use simulation programs to try to figure out car setups back in the shop. To get the data for the simulation programs on the exact characteristics of the track surface, teams need to test at the racetrack.

Because testing has been banned for the past four years, teams have not gathered any data on some of the tracks.

So Jimmie Johnson, a five-time Cup champion and four-time Vegas winner, came with what he thought would be a decent setup that worked last year. It didn't as the front of his car kept scraping the pavement in testing Thursday.

"The front end didn't ride like it should, and we had to go to work and get the front end to stay down on the car and not bounce up and down so bad through the bumps," Johnson said. "Some of that is probably due to the fact that the splitter is a much more solid structure now where before you had some give in the front end of the car and stuff would move."

Johnson hopes the data they gathered during the test day Thursday will help the team come more prepared in the future.

"That's the biggest reason every team is excited for testing this year—so that we can go out and get some current data files," Johnson said.

"As tracks evolve every winter and every summer, we haven't had a chance to pull data here in a long, long time, so we're just working on old data and a lot has changed out there."